Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Annual Dinner 2008 - Patron's Message

Patron’s Address
Mr Vincent Lau Lee Ming
21st Annual Reunion Dinner
31st October 2008

Good Evening

Brother Albinus
Our Most Respected Ex-Principal

Mr Vincent Liong
The Respected Principal of the School

Respected Teachers and Retired Teachers

Dr Lim Choon Yang
President of the Sibu Sacred Heart School Alumni Association of Kuching

Alumni Committee Members

Fellow Alumni and Family members

Members of the Press

Students of Sacred Heart School

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

A Very Good Evening to all of you

First of all, I would like to thank Dr Lim Choon Yang, your President, and the Organising Committee for having me here to be the Patron for tonight’s dinner function.

When Choon Yang invited me to be the Patron, I gladly accepted because I am most honoured to be associated with your Alumni.

I am happy to see so many members of the Alumni coming together one more time for such a happy gathering. You have been doing this without fail for the past 20 years, and now we are all gathered here again for the 21st year. I must say that I am extremely proud of you and your success.

I see that the Reunion Dinner has become a tradition for you.

A fellowship gathering such as this one can meaningfully serve as the platform that helps to bind us together for mutual pleasure and interest. It is like an occasion when members, families and friends can meet for a good time together. This is a time for sharing experiences, giving thanks, as well as a time to ponder and reflect on some matters of the heart.

Looking back to our school days brings back fond memories of the carefree life and fun that we had enjoyed while we were in school. After we leave our school and enter society, we will be exposed to a wider world outside and we look forward to greater things in the future.

And looking into the future makes us all grateful that we can handle what is to come because of the solid education that we have received from the De LaSalle Brothers and our respected teachers in our school.

Fellow alumni, this is our proud common root in our beloved Sacred Heart School.

Our school education in Sacred Heart is one of the best.

We all should be grateful for having given this superior quality of education. It is now our turn to give back to our school and to society. One way of giving back is to work through an organisation such as your Alumni Association. We should all recognise the profound and significant contributions made by old students of Sacred Heart School to the State of Sarawak, and to the region, in many aspects of life, be it political, social, economic and cultural.

In this regard, I am happy that you have adopted a “reaching out” attitude towards your approach in celebrating your 21st Reunion Dinner. I have been told by the school principal that over the years, your Alumni has made a lot of contributions to the school, both in terms of financial and moral support.

This is highly commendable.

Your Alumni has been supporting the school by giving money to help the poor students financially. Each year, on the School Speech Day, you also sponsor some awards for the students for outstanding achievements in various subjects and activities. This is a major source of encouragement to the students. It is a driving force in helping the students to strive harder and aim higher.

I have also been told that at the present moment your Alumni has a collective effort to help to sponsor two old students who are now studying in the university. It seems a bit surprising to me that both the old students happen to be girls, and we have always thought of ourselves more as a boys’ school.

However, whether it is boy or girl does not really matter to us. Any old student is part of our family. The Sacred Heart family.

It must have been quite a task to see Marry Soon through to her final year now, and I am sure when she graduates next year, she will in her turn, help to contribute back to society in her own ways. You should be proud to know that you have had your share in that contribution.

I see also that you are now undertaking an added task to support Irene Tiong, who is now in her first year in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia or UKM. It gives me great comfort to have the confidence that you will continue to support Irene in the same way that you have supported Marry.

It also touches me to note that in your “reaching out” program, you are adopting Sekolah Rendah Sungei Stutong as a project for a private tuition centre set up by Brother Albinus’ Yayasan LaSallian Kuching for the poor primary students of the school.

Indeed, I see clearly that you are helping marginalized students by giving them a better chance in life. You have lived up to the loud and clear call that nobody should be deprived of a good education just because of their financial difficulties.

Truly, you are friends of education who have helped shape the future by giving back to society, particularly through your generous fund contributions towards helping those with financial difficulties.

Your Alumni Association is a good umbrella organisation for ex-Sacred Heart School students to net work with one another to promote honourable friendship and maintain warm relationship with one another. In this, I believe that your Alumni Association is and will remain as one of the top alumni associations in Sarawak.

Things are getting going and I am encouraged to see a cohesive and active team that has worked hard to make things happen. Therefore, I encourage more ex-students, especially the younger ones, to take the opportunity to join in the Alumni Association, and to take the lead in future events.

Once again, I am pleased to tell you that I am happy to be here with you, and I hope that everybody will have a good time and enjoy the reunion dinner function tonight.

Thank you very much.

No comments: